Benjamin Wright (composer)

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Benjamin F. Wright Jr. (born July 11, 1946) is an American record producer, composer and arranger.

As an arranger, he has conducted hits for many artists including

He was born in Greenville, Mississippi, United States. Wright started his music career while in high school, performing as a drum major in the marching band, and singing doo-wop in a group he and his friends started. After high school, Wright embarked on his first musical tour with the R&B singer, Ted Taylor. During the tour, Wright played piano and sang backup for the band. The Ted Taylor tour allowed Wright to experience music arrangement for the first time. His subsequent success within the industry took him on the road with musicians including James Brown, Otis Redding, Billy Stewart and Gladys Knight & the Pips.

Shortly after Wright's touring period, he was drafted into the United States Air Force. While there, Wright met Andrew "Fats" Ford, a trumpet player who played with Duke Ellington. Ford eventually introduced Wright to Ellington — an experience that changed Wright's life. After Wright's honorable discharge from the military in Alabama, he worked for several years with Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces.

Wright was soon invited to play with Pieces of Peace in Chicago. He relocated and begin a career as a copyist and arranged. During this time, he attended the

After meeting up with the Pieces of Peace, he was brought on as a member of Chicago's premier soul and funk bands. Through the 1960s and early 1970s they backed Syl Johnson for his shows and on his 1970 LP. Is It Because I'm Black. Pieces of Peace was one of the premier session bands and recorded music for Jackie Wilson, The Chi-Lites, Jerry Butler, and Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions.^[1] Concurrently, he was a copyist for arranging and producer for Charles Stepney, Donny Hathaway, Gene Barge, and Richard Evans^[1] – exposing him to wide range of artists and building a strong relationship with Chess Records, Brunswick Records, Curtom Records, Mercury Records, and various artists across the Chicago music scene. Eventually Pieces of Peace disintegrated during a tour of Southeast Asia, mostly due to homesickness and pressure over managerial disputes, amongst other factors.^[2]

Los Angeles era

With the band disbanding and the industry shifting from Chicago to Los Angeles, Wright moved to the latter to expand into producing music. Once there in 1975, he started working as the music director and producer for

Wright, also began work with Stax Records gospel crossover artist, Rance Allen in 1978, arranging and orchestrating his Top 30 R&B hit, "I Belong to You." Achieving mainstream chart success was a rare occurrence for a gospel act. The two continued to collaborate for a number of years.

In 1979, Wright was contacted by

He had continued chart success in 1980 producing for Tavares' Supercharged and Love Uprising, with the songs "Love Uprising" and the socio-politically charged "Bad Times". He also arranged the horns and strings for Aretha Franklin's 1980 hit "United Together", subsequently joining Franklin on tour as her music director.

Wright and Jones collaborated again in 1981. "

Between 1982 and 1983, Wright opened the Ritesonian recording studio.

After having worked on Edmund Sylvers' solo project, Leon Sylvers III (the in-house producer for SOLAR Records) reached out to Wright to arrange music for a number of the label's musicians including Klymaxx, The Whispers ["Keep On Lovin Me" (US R&B number 4) and "In The Raw" (US R&B number 8)], Lakeside ["Real Love" (US R&B number 17)], Shalamar, Midnight Star, Carrie Lucas ["Dance With You" (US Dance number 6)], and Dynasty.

Similarly, he would arrange a number of records for

The relationship with Timberlake continued through subsequent albums, conducting the string arrangements on a number of songs, including "Until The End of Time", "Mirrors", and "Take Back The Night".

Wright subsequently worked with

External links

• Benjamin Wright discography at Discogs